Admitting you have a problem is the first step.

To the officer who noticed his co-worker was drunk and brought it to the attention of his superiors, thank you. That is how it is supposed to work. We need more like you.

To the officer who felt it was okie-dokie to show up at in-service training sloshed, get help, man. When you can't face a day at work without a stiff belt to strengthen the nerves, you've got issues.

To IMPD Acting Chief Rick Hite, good luck. You've obviously got a problem of Augean proportions here, and no matter how new your broom is, there's a lot of sweeping ahead before you can rid your agency of its "I Must Patrol Drunk" reputation.

7 comments:

It's sad, but at least it's a problem that's socially unacceptable enough that the chief might actually get to clean out some of his cop shop over it. Too bad "beating the shit out of non-cops" isn't also on the list of things that are socially unacceptable for cops to do and get fired for.

I liked the Chief's term, "coming to the rescue of" fellow officers who are, for whatever reason, not doing the job right. As long as an organisation's members tolerate each other's bad performance, the organisation will decline.

My initial reaction was: If this is true, fire the officer out of hand. Period.

But I've got to say that I liked the Acting Chief's statement. That they will be transparent when the investigation is through, but that releasing info halfway through could amount to casting aspersions incorrectly.

The Chief's statement that they're trying to get the guy some help is a good one, and the best way to get buddies to help the process work. If the hard line is "fire 'em when we find out," there are bound to be a few cops who say "I've worked with ol' Bob for 12 years. I can't do that," and now you've got a bigger problem. Also, only an idiot would fail to say, "I couldn't help it! I has a dependency problem!! You can't fire me! This is a Medical Issue! ADA!!!"

So you get him into treatment, and get him the help, and find out: was this a case of a couple of pops in the morning, or waking up still drunk? Did he drive in? Was he in uniform and armed? Thus the question is: Fired? A month off and treatment at his expense? No more badge and armed duty?

He's got to send a message that this is serious and won't be tolerated, but that they'll take care of you medically, too. Thin line.